Television

Sunday, July 31, 2016

GateHouse: The death penalty promises to make a splash in campaign 2016

Matthew T. Mangino

GateHouse Media

July 20, 2016

The death penalty just became a whole lot more interesting
with Hillary Clinton’s choice of running mate. By selecting Virginia Sen. Tim
Kaine as her running mate, Hillary Clinton chose one of the few Democratic
governors who, like her husband Bill Clinton, put people to death.

Clinton has said she “would breathe a sigh of relief if either the Supreme
Court or the states themselves began to eliminate the death penalty.” According
to Think Progress, Clinton was signaling for the first time that she would
support a court ruling eliminating capital punishment.

With that said, Clinton supports the death penalty being an option for the
federal government.

If Clinton’s stance on capital punishment seems awkward wait until you get a
load of Kaine’s position. Kaine is opposed to the death penalty, yet he
presided over 11 executions as governor of Virginia. The New York Times
reported that Kaine’s handling of capital punishment shows that he recognizes —
and expediently bends — to the reality of the Democratic Party and the state he
represented.

Some death penalty opponents cast his decisions as political survival and
ambition. “Tim is a politician,” Jack Payden-Travers, who ran Virginians for
Alternatives to the Death Penalty, told the Times.

The machinations of the death penalty have the nation’s political parties
abandoning their traditional stances on the ultimate punishment. For instance,
in Ohio, with a GOP governor who was the last man standing in opposition to
Donald Trump, the evolution of the death penalty has been nothing short of
astonishing.

A little more than five years ago, Ohio was second only to Texas with 10
executions in a single year. This year, Ohio has not carried out a single
execution. With GOP John Kasich as governor the state has not executed an
inmate since Jan. 16, 2014.

Executions are not the only thing plummeting in Ohio. The number of capital
murder indictments filed across the state since 2010 has dropped by 77 percent
— just 19 capital indictments were brought in 2015, reported the Cleveland
Plain Dealer.

However, that is not entirely surprising. Cuyahoga County — Cleveland’s home
and the site of the Republican National Convention — had the second most
capital convictions in the state, but there has been a changing of the guard.

In 2013, Cuyahoga County elected a new prosecutor. Tim McGinty is not only less
likely to seek the death penalty but has written to the parole board on behalf
of a condemned inmate declaring that under his leadership the office changed
its approach to capital punishment.

Not unexpectedly, Donald Trump supports the death penalty. He made it clear he
will expand the death penalty to those who kill police officers. His pick for
vice-president Indiana Governor Mike Pence also supports the death penalty.

Where does America stand?

Nationally, a Gallup Poll conducted last fall found that 61 percent of the
public still supports the death penalty although executions are at a 25-year
low.

A number of states — Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico,
New York and Nebraska — have recently abandoned capital punishment. The
governors of four other states — Colorado, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington
— have imposed execution moratoriums.

As lethal injection drugs become more and more scarce, some states are looking
for alternatives to lethal injection. Utah is considering bringing back the
firing squad and Oklahoma allows for the use of a firing squad if lethal
injection is unavailable.

Missouri is considering the gas chamber, and the electric chair is still
available in eight states and has been used recently in Virginia and Florida.
Pennsylvania apparently has an ample supply of execution drugs, although the
state hasn’t involuntarily executed an inmate in over 50 years.

The death penalty — rarely imposed and even more rarely carried out — might
just be an issue in 2016.

— Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George
P.C. His book, “The Executioner’s Toll, 2010,” was recently released by
McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at mattmangino.com and follow him on
Twitter at @MatthewTMangino.

About Matt

An analysis of crime and punishment from the perspective of a former prosecutor and current criminal justice practitioner.
The views expressed on this blog are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or postions of any county, state or federal agency.